Notes

Sakai made her acting debut in a TV drama in 1986 and released her first record the next year.

Her popularity expanded overseas in the early 1990s.

Noriko Sakai married Yuichi Takaso in 1998 and gave birth to a son one year later.

Her successful return to acting after becoming a mother turned Noriko into a role model for many women and transformed her image into a happy mother.

Noriko Sakai was arrested for drug possession on Saturday August 8th, 2009. Noriko Sakai went missing five days earlier after her husband Yuichi Takaso was also arrested for drug possession. Yuichi Takaso was walking in the Shibuya Ward of Tokyo in the early morning hours of August 3rd, when a police officer on patrol stopped Takaso for questioning and eventually discovered a small plastic bag of stimulants hidden in his underwear [1]. The following day, Noriko Sakai's mother in law asked the Tokyo Police Department to search for the actress and her 10 year old son [2] & the police issued a summons for Sakai to come to the police station and volunteer for a urine test [3]. She then disappeared along with her 10 year old son, who was found safe on August 6th at the home of an acquaintance. Subsequently, the police searched Noriko Sakai's apartment on Friday, August, 8th and discovered 0.008 gram of a stimulant drug wrapped in aluminum foil [4] & issued an arrest warrant. An intense media frenzy ignited in Asia over Sakai's disappearance until she turned herself to the police in Bunkyo Ward, Tokyo on August 8th, 2009.

On November 9th, 2009 Noriko Sakai received a suspended sentence for 3 years, 18 months in prison if violated.